A Bitcoin Ordinals developer has warned that they are prepared to finance the creation of an open-source fork of Bitcoin Core if efforts are made to censor Ordinals, Runes, or other non-financial transactions on the network.
The warning came in an open letter on X from Leonidas, host of The Ordinal Show, on Saturday, as debates within the Bitcoin community intensify over whether node operators should prioritize peer-to-peer financial transactions while filtering out large data transactions — such as images, videos, or documents — which critics dismiss as spam.
Leonidas described such measures as a “dangerous precedent” and cautioned that any move to tighten policy rules or restrict Ordinals and Runes transactions would prompt “decisive action.”
“If necessary, the DOG Army will fund the development and maintenance of an open source fork of Bitcoin Core that strips out nearly all policy rules, and that thousands of people will run to make it abundantly clear that Bitcoin is and must always remain censorship resistant.”
Leonidas’ comments came in response to remarks by Blockstream CEO Adam Back, who — along with many Bitcoiners — argues that non-financial transactions like Ordinals and Runes amount to spam and “have no place in the timechain.”
Bitcoin Core vs. Bitcoin Knots
An alternative implementation, Bitcoin Knots, has seen rapid adoption over the past year. Node counts have surged from just 67 in March 2024 to more than 4,380 today, representing over 18% of the network.
This growth comes ahead of the scheduled Oct. 30 release of Bitcoin Core v30, which removes the 80-byte cap on the OP_RETURN function, enabling significantly larger amounts of media to be stored on-chain. Leonidas’ open letter reflected fears that this change could be rolled back under pressure from those opposed to Ordinals.
Among those siding with Back are Ocean Mining founder Luke Dashjr and Satoshi Action Fund CEO Dennis Porter.
Ordinals and Runes fees as miner incentives
Leonidas countered that the Ordinals and Runes ecosystems have already contributed more than $500 million in transaction fees, bolstering Bitcoin’s long-term security — an increasingly critical issue as block subsidies continue to halve roughly every four years.
He also claimed to have spoken with miners representing over half of Bitcoin’s total hash rate, who told him they would include any transaction type in blocks so long as the fees remain competitive.
Volatile demand for blockspace
Still, reliance on Ordinals fees has proven inconsistent. Transaction activity tends to be seasonal: on Aug. 31, miners earned just $3,060 from Ordinals, compared to the record $9.99 million generated on Dec. 16, 2023, according to Dune Analytics.
So far in 2025, daily totals haven’t even surpassed $1 million — a sign that Ordinals are no longer consuming as much blockspace as they did at their peak.
